Rachel's Angels 2011-2012

Rachel's Angels, as we are now affectionately known, has started up for the 2011-2012 school year. Actually, before school even started, our Angels helped out during Patriot Days. They had collected new and used school supplies during locker clean out at the end of last school year and then "sold" them during Patriot Days for a small donation.

Our first meeting was held on September 14th and included our eighth and ninth grade students. We will incorporate our seventh graders after the Rachel's Challenge presentation on November 2nd. The first half of that day, the seventh graders will see the presentation all of our students saw last spring. The second half of that day, the eighth and ninth graders will get to participate in Part 2 of Rachel's Challenge so they can learn strategies to strenghten the program we have here at Jeannette. The eighth and ninth grade students are very excited to know that they get to participate in Part 2 and are looking forward to it!

This year, the Angels have enrolled Jeannette into the Box Top$ for Education program. For more information about this program, click HERE.

Our Angels have adopted a road! Last spring we joined the Adopt-a-County-Road program and we are responsible for cleaning up the roadside on 18 Mile between Ryan and Dequindre. This task is to be done twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. This year we donned our orange vests and ventured out on a beautiful, crisp day. If you see those orange vests in the spring, give us a toot on your car horn!

We are getting ready for Rachel's Challenge to be here once again! The students have been hearing announcements each day along with a video clip to get them in the spirit. They also did a "hand" activity mimicking hands that Rachel Joy Scott drew on a piece of furniture with the words, "These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will someday touch millions of people's hearts". Here are some of our student's versions with their hand tracings:

Rachel's Challenge once again came to Jeannette Junior High on November 2nd. Our 7th graders saw Part One of the presentation and out 8th and 9th graders saw Part Two. About 100 students attended a training session that afternoon to help guide them on things they can do and what our school can do to continue our important work and to continue to spread Rachel Joy Scott's legacy all around. After the training, the students were asked what they would like our Rachel's Angels to accomplish this year and each of them wrote their ideas down. There are so many wonderful ideas! We will be joining Student Council in their quest to provide needy children with Christmas toys. The Toys for Tots program will run in early December. Then in January, we will be working with the National Junior Honor Society and Student Council to help collect items needed for our American soldiers overseas. This will be in mid to late January. Stay tuned for more details!

Our Angels have been hard at work this year. They have worked with Student Council on the Toys for Tots program. The Marines stopped at Jeannette just before our holiday break to pick up all the toys collected!

Our Rachel's Angels set out on a Power of One Walk to let the community know that being kind is a way of life that everyone should adopt, and they encouraged people to exude kindness. The students and staff made signs and walked along Gulliver Drive and 18 Mile Road. In all, we got 491 "honks and beeps" from passing motorists who read our signs and sent encouragement back to us. The students had so much fun they asked if we could do this again next week! Of course, we have something else planned for our meetings for the rest of the year, but rest assured that the Power of One Walk will become an annual event! It could possibly even become a twice a year event!